Re: Sony PHU-60 Problems

We had a similar issue this week shooting a concert with 3 EX3s. From reading posts on other sites, there definitely seems to be a problem with the drive. It seems that the drive powers off while in use, with no warning. Only one of our cameras had the drive unit and was being operated hand held on stage during a pretty loud performance and 40 minutes into the show the drive reported an error and switched to recording on the SxS card. Not sure if the drive, the battery or its cable was in any way jostled, but we weren't doing anything out of the ordinary for a hand held shoot.

At the end of the show, we were offered the option to restore the card and selected not to execute, as weren't sure what that meant at the time. We were able to see and move the entire BPAV file to my MacBook Pro, but on using File Transfer, noticed that 2 clips were not accessible through File Transfer or Clip Browser. The drive belongs to one of our DPs and I did not have access to the unit at the time. The solution was found on another post and referred to in the EX3 manual, and was easy enough:

1. Copy the entire BPAV file back to a SxS card - were lucky that our BPAV file was under 16GB
2. Place the SxS card in the camera
3. On powering up the camera, I was again given the option to Restore media. selected execute, media was restored.
4. Recapture the BPAV
5. The clips that were originally missing in File Transfer appeared and were imported, saving 40 minutes of footage.

Would love to know if others are having problems with the drive, as I am now uncomfortable ever using it.

Eli M. Kabillio

www.maddogfilms.com
MacPro 8 Core 2.8Ghz, 6G RAM, AJA IO/HD, FCP 6.04
MacPro 4 Core 2.66Ghz, 6G RAM, BlackMagic MultiBridge Pro, FCP 6.04
Sony PDW F350 XDCamHD